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Champion jockey Hugh Bowman was suspended for three meetings and fined $HK75,000 on a careless riding charge at Sha Tin in Hong Kong on Sunday.

HKJC chief steward Kim Kelly said Bowman was lucky to escape a serious improper riding charge after causing interference to six rivals in the $HK10 million Classic Mile.

Bowman won the feature event aboard the Frankie Lor-trained Furore before he faced the stewards for his aggressive tactics on the winner between the 400m and 300m.

The stewards found Bowman shouldered into the clear on Furore, setting off a chain reaction that affected six other runners including the favourite Dark Dream.

Bowman was subsequently suspended for careless riding but the suspension covers only three meetings and will not prevent him from riding Winx when she resumes in the Apollo Stakes at Randwick on February 16.

Bowman returned to Sydney on Sunday night and will ride at Warwick Farm on Monday.

Kelly said Bowman would have received a much longer suspension if he had been charged with improper riding.

“We did give consideration to improper riding, but the panel was unanimous that, in our view, it didn’t meet the standards for improper riding, but it met the standard for careless riding,” Kelly told the South China Morning Post.

“He accepted that he started the movement and we believe the further out it went, it made it worse.

“The end result was an unsatisfactory result in that we had seven riders in the room and we had seven horses that were involved.”

Chad Schofield was also suspended for two meetings and fined $HK20,000 for careless riding in the Classic Mile.